Calata’s cryptocurrency plan ‘not workable’

AGRIBUSINESS firm Calata Corp.’s plan to list on a cryptocurrency exchange by converting its shares into a digital currency is not workable, a top official of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said.

“Shares per se are not convertible to other securities unless the articles of incorporation say so,” the PSE official who declined to be named told The Manila Times on Thursday.

“If you notice, convertible preferred shares, for example, can be converted to common if and only if it was so stated at the time of issuance of the preferred shares,” he added.

The official noted that under Exchange rules, the firm upon issuance shall notify shareholders that such stocks shall be convertible into another type of security.

“Unang una, pag iko-convert ko ang isang security to another, kailangan maliwanag yun nung bumili ako sa yo [First of all, if I am going to convert one security to another, it should be clear when I bought those shares from you],” he said.

In a news briefing on Monday, Calata Corp. President and Chairman Joseph Calata said he was considering listing the company on a cryptocurrency exchange as an alternative after it was involuntarily delisted by the PSE last week.

He said the company was now in talks with three European cryptocurrency exchanges.

“Calata Corp. will issue digital tokens called Calcoins. Holding a token is equivalent to [a stock]so a shareholder of Calata Corp. will have a digital token of Calata coins… equivalent to ownership of their stocks,” he said.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are websites where a person can directly buy, sell, or exchange cryptocurrencies for another digital or traditional currency.

The PSE official said, however, that the delisting does not mean the dissolution of the company and the shares of the investors.

“Shareholders [of Calata Corp.]will remain to be shareholders of a private company,” he noted.

“Delisting doesn’t mean dissolution. The process of delisting does not necessarily result in dissolving the company. The assets remain intact, the shareholders remain to be shareholders,” he said.